1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method to energize a fluid. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method to introduce radiant energy to a fluid stream so as to provide a beneficial growing medium for plants.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For the past forty years, there has been a steady growth of the consumer horticultural industry in the United States and its growth continues to out pace all other major farm sectors. Overall, the industry had an estimated 44 billion dollars in 1992 sales. Potted foliage plants, cut flowers, potted flowering plants, bedding plants and cut live trees represented an estimated 6.7 billion of this figure up from 4.4 billion in 1989 at a growth rate averaging 3-5 percent per year. In this highly competitive marketplace, premiums are placed on freshness of the product.
The industry consists of thousands of growers and retailers, and in recent years, foreign imports have dramatically increased the competition in the industry. Growers and retailers are faced with ever increasing demands to produce and market quality products at reasonable prices.
The highly competitive market place has forced both grower and retailer to incorporate technological advances into their business in order to maintain competitiveness. Most of the technological developments in the industry have been production oriented and have offered few advances for the retailer. These technological advances for the most part have been limited to the commercial portion of the industry and have not been available to the consumer public.
One such advancement which has been proposed includes the treatment of the plant environment, at an atomic level, to promote health and stimulate growth. One such technique for controlling plant growth is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,934 as issued to Liboff et al, in which a magnetic filed generator produces a controlled magnetic field parallel to a predetermined axis. Another process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,889 as issued to Carlson, in which a plant growth stimulator is subjected to sound waves. Still another process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,456 as issued to Kertz, for the electronic stimulation of the plant environment.
Each of the aforereferenced techniques suffer from the fact that the beneficial effects realized by the plant growth medium are lost when the medium, e.g. water, moves from the magnetic, acoustic or electrical field. The ultimate result, therefore, is that these prior inventions have application only in a controlled environment.